This Toyota Can Offer The World Nothing But More Glorious Speed

The world’s relationship with race cars is give give give, and race cars do nothing but take take take. Toyota’s TS050 LMP1 race car consumes hundreds of tires, thousands of gallons of fuel, and millions of dollars in an FIA WEC season, and all we have to show for it as a society is sweet sweet speed. It’s fast and ridiculous and glorious. And in the end, isn’t that what we need more of?

Toyota’s Mike Conway on Friday set a new record during qualifying for the 6 hour race at that track this weekend. The FIA WEC has been running at Spa since the series began in 2012, but no car has ever run as quickly as the lap shown in the video below. Despite the fact that Toyota has no standing competition this season (which ends next month at the 24 Hours of Le Mans) the team has continued making the car as fast as it can be within the rules.

While this isn’t the outright lap record for the track, being that Porsche’s non-homologated 919 Evo broke the record last year, which was then re-broken by Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 car a few months later, it’s the record for homologated LMP1s. Either way, that’s pretty damn quick.